Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, formerly known as the Foreign Office, is a department of the government of the United Kingdom. The Foreign Office was formed in March 1782 to protect and promote British interests worldwide. In 1968, the Foreign Office and the short-lived Commonwealth Office merged to form the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It occupied a building that was built from 1861 to 1868, and the building was refurbished in 2014.